Mike Redmond feeling better about Marlins bullpen

MIAMI _ Andrew Heaney was not the only good news when it came to the pitching on Thursday.

Manager Mike Redmond is feeling less anxious about a bullpen that was shaky at best the first two months of the season.

Bryan Morris and Kevin Gregg tossed three scoreless innings in Heaney’s hard-luck 1-0 loss to the Mets in his debut. Morris went two innings, increasing his scoreless innings streak to 11.1 since joining the Marlins. Gregg didn’t allow a hit in the ninth inning in his first outing since being signed.

“I feel a lot better about that bullpen,” Redmond said.

Throw in the improvement of Chris Hatcher (12 of last 13 outs via strikeout), and the bullpen has a distinctly different look from opening day when Hatcher was in Triple-A New Orleans, Morris was with the Pirates and Gregg was home in Corvallis, Ore., having gone unsigned as a free agent.

“It’s a lot deeper,” Redmond said. “But the key still is the starting pitching. When you can get exposed is when you’re getting four, five innings (from the starters) and that bullpen has to eat up a lot of innings. They just can’t keep that pace up.”

Gregg likely will step into the main setup role ahead of closer Steve Cishek, with Morris also getting a look. A.J. Ramos started the season as the eighth-inning setup man but has been inconsistent. Mike Dunn is the lone lefty in the bullpen and erstwhile starter Jacob Turner has be relegated to a mop up role.

Yelich on the mend

Outfielder Christian Yelich, who was placed in the DL retroactive to June 14 because of back spasms, is progressing nicely.

Yelich is playing catch and taking dry swings. Redmond expects him to play in a couple of rehab games for Jupiter late next week and be ready to rejoin the Marlins when his DL stint is up June 29.

Missing offense

The Marlins have scored one run and managed just eight hits in their last two games, losses to the Cubs and Mets.

Since Giancarlo Stanton’s home run in the first inning Wednesday, Miami has had just seven singles in 17 scoreless innings.

“We’re going to go through some spells like this,” Redmond said.

Still, the Marlins are third in the NL in runs, fifth in average, sixth in hits, sixth in home runs and seventh in total bases.